When Digital Business Saves Lives: A Case for Paperless Non-Profit Organizations

Walk into any non-profit organization and you’ll collide with passionate people who equate impact with revenue. Their ROI factors the number of people their mission served; and their product is justice and equality.

No matter their focus, non-profit organizations around the world advocate for the voiceless and vulnerable. However, their passion alone cannot stand in for the processes that deliver resources and aid.

As with any organization, non-profits manage various internal and external operations, all of which are tied together by transactions and workflow; often these are of the traditional paper-based variety. However, paper costs dearly – both financially and with the time required to track and manage documents. Another unfortunate truth is that unlike their for-profit counterparts, they may lack the funding and bandwidth to carry out the scope of what needs to be done.

But why should paper screech the breaks for any essential mission?

With electronic signature readily available, non-profits will never have to compromise on projects just because ‘paper’ tangles up budget and bandwidth.

For example, just look at Free The Children (FTC), an international charity with a focus on delivering aid to impoverished children worldwide. Every year, FTC welcome an inspiring number of young volunteers to serve and spread the message of trading in their time to improve the lives of our emerging global generation. Naturally, the process of tracking volunteer consent forms would eventually exhaust internal resources.

Their answer was to go digital. Not only did electronic signature help this non-profit save many a tree, it was able to drive efficiency and the overall cost-effectiveness of operations.

In running a fully digital business, FTC highlighted three key advantages that every non-profit deserves:

1. Accelerate Speed to Impact – Paper-based applications and internal processes impede success. Integrating digital processes cuts out the extra steps of printing, faxing, scanning and storing.

2. Rightful Reinvestment– With Free The Children, every penny saved from cutting out paper is reinvested in the projects that benefit the children.

3. Ignite Productivity – Paperwork and red-tape damper the fire that drives non-profit organizations. Stomp out any discouragement or frustration by recycling out all the paper in favor of simple, digitally transacted documents so attention can be dedicated to where it’s needed.

Paper shouldn’t steal away time and money. As businesses worldwide reap the benefits of keeping digital, non-profit organizations will serve an even stronger punch when advocating for those in need.